Mississippi Man Pleads Guilty to Faking His Death to Avoid Sex Charges

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A Mississippi man, a former veteran of combat in Iraq, has pleaded guilty to faking his own death in order to disappear and avoid charges that he sexually abused a 14-year-old girl.

Jacob Blair Scott was facing charges of assaulting the girl and was out on bond when he faked his death in 2018, according to the Associated Press and federal court records. Police in coastal Alabama responded to a call for help in the Gulf of Mexico and found a small boat offshore, with a gun and a suicide note.

Authorities searched the water for more than a week. Eighteen months later, in early 2020, Scott was captured in an RV park in Oklahoma, where he had been living under an assumed name, the news report said. A jury in Mississippi convicted him in June of this year of 14 sexual battery and child abuse charges.

Scott, in his early 40s, is scheduled for sentencing in November. He could face up to five years in prison on each of three counts and more than $750,000 in fines, as well as restitution payments, according to his plea agreement. He already is serving an 85-year sentence for the sexual assault crimes.

The teenage victim testified at trial, tearfully recounting how the man had assaulted her at least 30 times until she became pregnant in 2017. Scott’s defense team argued that his mental state, aggravated by his combat service, injuries and medication, led to his crimes.

“I was a good man. This ain’t who I am,” Scott said, the Sun Herald newspaper reported.

Scott was found in Oklahoma just a week after he was added to the U.S. Marshals’ well-publicized “Most Wanted” list, with a $25,000 reward, news sites have said. Before that, investigators suspected he had faked his death, and found that $45,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account.

Photo: Scott at his sentencing hearing in June, after he was convicted on sexual assault charges. (Hannah Ruhoff/The Sun Herald via AP)